This information is from the 2012 program, updated 2013 information will be posted soon!

Most of the courses offered during the SMDP Tanzania 2012 are focused on savings groups and range from introductory — What do poor people need most—to save or to be more indebted? (Cancelled) and Graduating Savings Groups into Community ‘banks’ to intermediate courses — Village Finance Auditing (Cancelled) and Savings Groups: Programme Design and Implementation Management to advanced courses Combining Savings Groups and Other Activities: What we know about doing it efficiently and safely and Savings Groups: Management Information Systems (Cancelled).

In Week Two we are also offering a week-long course in Pro-Poor Enterprise and Value Chain Development (PPEVCD), which begins four weeks ahead of the in-classroom course with a Market Analysis and Value Chain Program Design Online Course developed by CARE and MEDA. While this course is not savings groups oriented, it does introduce another highly effective strategy for developing livelihood options for poor entrepreneurs.

When you register, please be aware of the course duration as we are offering two day, three day, four day, and full week (five day) courses over the two weeks. Registration fees will vary from per-day fees for the two- to four-day course to full week fees. There are residential and commuter options available. Go to the Registration page for detailed registration instructions including MasterCard Foundation scholarship information.

DAILY CLASS SCHEDULE

• We will open the SMDP Tanzania on both Mondays with a World Café experience which will give students an opportunity to meet each other and explore their learning goals for the SMDP.
• On Wednesday and Friday mornings of each week from 08:00 to 09:20, we will offer plenary sessions to explore some of the exciting innovation going on in the development finance fields. Watch this website for more details on these sessions.
• Daily class schedule is 09:30 to 17:00 on plenary/World Café days and 08:30 to 17:00 on other days.
• Most courses include field visits to savings groups, value chain development programs, and other community based development initiatives as part of the overall class curriculum.
• We will offer a variety of evening events including:
  • Under the Mango Tree sessions for participants sharing from the field and student debates and presentations
  • Evening Salons including an all facilitator panel on “The Very Essence of Savings Groups” and other topics
• Lunch will be served from 13:00-14:00 each day, and mid-morning and mid-afternoon nutrition breaks will be offered every class day.

WEEK ONE COURSE OFFERINGS

Monday, October 15, to Friday, October 19
(two, three, and five day courses)

Monday, October 15, to Tuesday, October 16 (Two full-day sessions - Includes field visit on Tuesday)

What do poor people need most—to save or to be more indebted?  - Cancelled

Facilitator: Malcolm Harper

This course aims to show that savings products are an essential service for the poor, as much or possibly more as they are for better off people. It covers the needs for savings, the types of savings products which can satisfy these needs, and the costs and benefits of savings as a source of capital for microfinance institutions.

Course Objectives:

To enable participants to:

• Explain why people need to save
• Identify types of savings products which satisfy people’s savings needs
• Describe how savings can fit into the cost and revenue profile of an MFI

Wednesday, October 17 to Friday, October 19 (three full-day sessions— Includes field visit on Friday)

Village Finance Auditing - Cancelled

Facilitator: Brett Matthews

In this course, participants will learn to use a ‘micro-auditing’ tool designed that has been designed by Mathwood Consulting Company for village finance applications. It can quickly identify problems with a village finance institution by interpolating a current balance sheet from records and individual interviews. It is suited to village finance intermediaries with less than 100 members, including SACCOs, ASCAs, SHGs, VICOBAs, village banks, and others. It can be implemented in half a day by a two-person team with grade 8-10 education. On the third and final day, participants will test the tool in the field.

This program will begin with an introduction to village finance, followed by a refresher on mental arithmetic and ratio analysis—a skill that is easy to pick up and essential for practitioners, who will otherwise miss major governance and record-keeping problems. The program will then review some theoretical aspects behind the tool, including the balance sheet approach and the significance and use of portfolio yields.

The next section leads participants through the tool step-by-step, including cases, problems, and a hand-out for field use. This will be accompanied by extensive class discussion. On the third day students will test the tool in the tool in the field and present their results in a final classroom session at the end of the day.

Course Objectives:

Participants who are experienced with village finance will come away with a practical new toolkit and skills for efficiently and effectively spotting quality problems in small savings-led institutions (less than one hundred members). Participants who are planning new village finance programs will be able to integrate an effective quality control program capable of becoming sustainably village-based.  

Monday, October 15, to Friday, October 19 (five full-day sessions—Includes field visit on Thursday, October 18)

Combining Savings Groups and Other Activities: What we know about doing it efficiently and safely 

Facilitator: Paul Rippey

Savings Group programs frequently include Other Activities (OAs). Some prominent examples:

• In Mali, the Savings for Change program gives all savings group members a short course in malaria prevention that is integrated with the group training.
• In Uganda, some local NGOs are using their networks of savings groups to sell solar lamps to members and non-members; the revenue helps keep fee-for-service trainers working after grant funding is exhausted.
• In Tanzania, groups have been linked to marketing cooperatives to help those members who are farmers sell their production at better prices.

Other Activities (OAs) can be training, distribution or sales of social or commercial products, linkages to governmental, NGO or private sector programs, including financial institutions, the creation of federations and networks, or any other additional good or service beyond the simple provision of the core financial services of Savings Groups. OAs are already widespread, and as local and international NGOs become more aware of the efficiencies of working through networks of savings groups, they will become even more common.

Course Objectives:

This course will review what has been learned about how to combine Savings Groups with Other Activities. The course will examine:

• Three delivery system models: Unified, Parallel, and Linked
• The effects of linkage on the sustainability of both the Savings Group and the Other Activity
• Common pitfalls
• The advantages and costs for the Savings Group, the facilitating agency, and any partners involved in the OA
• Lessons learned about financial linkages, as well as emerging good practice in that area
• The meaning of the word “link” and the continuum of choice
• Assessing risk of linkage
• Post-project strategies: "Train and Retain," "Train and release," and "Train and transform"
• Case studies that may include Uganda, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania

By the end of the course, participants will

• Be able to assess the risks and advantages of combining SGs and OAs
• Examine the options that SG members are presented with, and make informed choices about the degree of choice to offer members
• Assess proposed delivery system models and know which is best adapted to their needs
• Understand models for accounting for and reporting on the costs of the SG and OA
• Beware of some common pitfalls in combining SGs and OAs
• Refer to the growing body of literature on combining SGs and OAs
• Analyze their own projects in light of what they have learned

Who Should Attend

The course is for three groups:

• Staff of savings group programs who are interested in adding other activities to their savings groups
• Other service providers and development professionals who are interested in the possibility of efficiently extending outreach by working through savings groups
• Donors, investors, and people responsible for policy within facilitating agencies who want to examine the use of their savings groups for larger developmental purposes

Monday, October 15, to Friday, October 19 (five full-day sessions—Includes a field visit to Village Savings and Lending Groups on Tuesday, October 16)

Savings Groups: Programme Design and Implementation Management

Facilitator: Hugh Allen (with guest facilitator George Mkoma on Tuesday)

It is becoming generally accepted that conventional microfinance approaches are unable to reach the majority of the rural poor (particularly in Africa) with a suite of appropriate financial services. This is owing to cost and the relatively limited debt capacity of the poorest. In addition, there is an increasing awareness of the primary importance of savings services, which most MFIs do not provide.

In the last ten years, this gap is increasingly filled by community-managed microfinance groups (known generically as savings groups), in which members mobilise and manage their own savings, investing this money in a loan fund from which they can borrow in amounts as small as $1. This approach is proving to be low cost, highly sustainable, and profitable for the member-owners and achieving significant scale. It is also promoted by most of the major international development agencies.

Course Objectives:

• Present the theoretical background to community-managed microfinance
• Visit a savings group and witness a savings and credit meeting
• Be exposed to the methodological approaches and training tools employed the major implementing organisations
• Receive an introduction to the most widely-used management information system
• Offer approaches to evaluation and the results of impact studies
• Be introduced to the most successful approaches to programme design

WEEK TWO COURSE OFFERINGS

Monday, October 22 — Friday, October 26
(four and five day courses)

Monday, October 22, to Friday, October 26 (five full-day sessions)

Savings Groups: Management Information Systems - Cancelled

Facilitator: Hugh Allen

This course is a companion to the first week’s course, but it is designed principally for practitioners who are already implementing a community-managed microfinance programme or who intend to do so.

The course focuses exclusively on the use of the new online version 5.0 of VSL Associates management information system, which is the most widely used in savings group programmes. The course covers the following:

• Organisational structure and MIS
• Financial logic
• Data requirements, definitions, collection, and auditing
• SETUP and data input
• Data output, analysis, and application in management
• Creation of private networks
• Posting to the SAVIX
• Administrative tools

Participants will be assisted to create an instance of the latest version (4.03) of the VSL Associates MIS online and aggregator and will be introduced to thesavix.org website, which reports on 75,000 SGs in Africa and Asia and which uses the MIS as its sole source of information.

Participants must come with a reasonably capable laptop (4 Gb of RAM) with Excel 2007 or 2010 installed, plus a clean, recently formatted USB pin drive. All computers must have a good wireless internet connection. Note: Tanzania uses the British square peg 240 Volt plug style, so be sure to bring an adapter if your laptop has another type of connector.

Monday, October 22, to Friday, October 26 (Five full-day sessions)

** Note this Course begins online four weeks before the in-class sessions **

Pro-Poor Enterprise and Value Chain Development (PPEVCD)

Facilitator: Ann Gordon

Pro-Poor Enterprise and Value Chain Development Program (PPEVCD) offers both formal and informal learning opportunities for those interested in developing and/or enhancing their skills in the field of enterprise development. A unique feature of this course is the incorporation of specific elements of value chain finance into the in-class portion of the course. The course is suitable for managers, donors, and practitioners who are involved in value chain facilitation, business development services, M4P projects, or market development programs that target poor producers and entrepreneurs. It is taught by experienced practitioners with expertise in both designing and implementing PPEVCD projects, as well as in teaching and facilitating workshops in Africa and around the globe.

The course starts with the prerequisite Market Analysis and Value Chain Program Design Online Course developed by MEDA and CARE, which is self-paced, takes approximately twenty hours to complete, and covers the key principles that define market-based development. We will open registration for the e-course about one month before the face-to-face class begins.

The in-class training course builds on the foundations of value chain facilitation and includes a variety of participatory learning methods such as field visits and case studies. Overall, the course covers the following objectives:

• Review and apply fundamentals such as value chain analysis, market research, and other elements of enterprise development in project design
• Comprehend the linkages between value chains and financial services, as well as other business support services
• Recognize the constraints and opportunities for value chain enterprises, which include those involved in rural financial markets

Monday, October 22, to Thursday, October 26 (Four full-day sessions)

Graduating Savings Groups into Community ‘Banks’

Facilitators: Peterson Karanja and Lillian Njeru

This is a four-day course consisting of four half-day sessions on Monday and Tuesday, one full day session on Wednesday, and one field visit day on Thursday.

TOPIC: COMMUNITY BASED AND MANAGED ASCA (non-time bound) MODEL FUNDAMENTALS.

Course Duration: Half-day session

This module aims at introducing participants to the concept of low cost CBASCAs that have high potential for progression and sustainability. Specifically participants will be expected to:

• Understand ASCAs and their promotion
• Understand critical issues involved with implementing the ASCA model
• Use training materials developed for the promotion/ implementation
• Adapt the materials/ model for their context

This module covers:

• Basics in understanding different financial systems
• Promotion model of CBASAs
• Limitations and possibilities of the promotion model
• Role of the promoter 
• Foundations of different financial systems

COURSE TOPIC 2: CAPACITY BUILDING SAVING GROUPS/ASCAs

COURSE DURATION: Three Half-day Sessions

This is a set of six modules that provides an insight into the very basic prerequisites necessary for group formation and stabilization. The course begins with an analysis of a model savings group constitution and then an in-depth discussion of the following key competent areas:

• Savings and loaning procedures
• Efficient Savings group leadership
• Proper recordkeeping for savings groups
• Pillars of a successful saving groups
• Maintenance of healthy savings group portfolios

This one-and-a-half day interactive course is expected to provide participants with an overview of concepts and tools of capacity building savings groups. The course is designed to draw lots of experience on real savings project examples to ensure participants are well grounded in the necessities for:

• Formation and stabilization of Community Based and Managed non time bound ASCAs
• Preparing these ASCAs for graduation into Financial Service Associations (FSAs)

COURSE TOPIC 3: GRADUATING ASCAs into FSAs/Value Chain Development

COURSE DURATION: One full day

This module is designed to cover:

• Basic understanding of the FSAs
• Whys of translation of ASCAs into FSAs 
• FSA advantages and potentials
• FSAs potentials in the contribution to value adding economic activities

The course is expected to provide participants with an overview of what ASCAs can progressively become—quasi savings unions—and the potential to introduce value addition in financial services/products offered, in addition to the potential for members to engage in viable business activities. Further, it will cover the need for savings groups (ASCAs) to adopt a superior model to accommodate good microfinance practices suitable for fast growing savings groups, promote good management practices, and enhance transparency and accountability.

The topics covered in the module:

1. Scaling up ASCAs—limitations and challenges identified with ASCAs on progressive growth curve
2. Business Characteristics of FSAs—advantages and potentials
3. FSA contributions in competitive business engagements